Ostrogothic Kingdom

The Ostrogothic Kingdom was a Germanic kingdom in Italy which was ruled by the Ostrogoths from 493 to 553 AD, with Ravenna serving as its capital. In 493 AD, the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great invaded Italy and deposed the Herulian leader Odoacer, who had deposed the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. Theodoric expanded the empire until it stretched from France in the west to Serbia in the southeast. Theodoric sought to be a leader for both the Goths and the Romans, styling himself as "King of the Goths and Romans", serving as the de jure Byzantine viceroy of Italy, consulting the Roman Senate on civic appointments, and staffing administrative positions exclusively with Romans. While the Romans dominated the politics of the kingdom, however, the army and all military offices were reserved for the Goths, who lived away from the Romans in northern Italy, and who adhered to Arianism instead of Catholicism (although they practiced religious tolerance). After Theodoric's death in 526 AD, the network of alliances that surrounded the Ostrogothic state began to disintegrate, and the Goths rose up against their queen Amalasuntha for intending to raise her son as a Roman. Despite having Byzantine support, Amalasuntha was deposed and executed. Justinian decided to retaliate by invading Italy from North Africa, where his forces had just conquered the Vandals. From 535 to 540, the Byzantines conquered Italy, including the Ostrogothic capital of Ravenna. From 541 to 553, Gothic resistance was reinvigorated under Totila, but Justinian's general Narses crushed the Goths at Taginae in 552 and repelled an invasion by the Franks and Alemanni in 553. That same year, the last Ostrogothic king, Teia, was killed at Mons Lactarius, and the Ostrogothic Kingdom collapsed. In 568, the Lombards would invade a devastated and depopulated Italy and drive out the Byzantines, creating their own Kingdom of the Lombards.